Lately it seems that everyone I speak to is feeling a shift in energy. Some feel it is a global awakening. Some read it as apocalyptic. Some think it is just a byproduct of our current political climate. Whatever it is, something is shifting.

The more I study the Vedic philosophies, the more I believe we are in the process of a collective energetic evolution. I believe we are moving into a more heart centered place, leveling up from the solar plexus. It’s crazy that to get to the heart we would find ourselves in such crazy times. I believe these are our growing pains. We need to move through it or stay small.

If you are familiar with the chakra system, you know the root is the first chakra, at the base of the spine, near our coccyx (tailbone). It is the energetic center of our survival instincts. It is the place of all of our basic needs to live physically. It houses the drive to secure food and water, to find shelter and to keep ourselves from harm. It is the only place that fear can serve us in a positive way, by alerting us of actual danger and stimulating a response in our bodies that enables us to protect ourselves.

Once we have that down and are feeling secure and grounded, we move to the next chakra, the sacral chakra. It is located, as the name suggests, in our sacrum or pelvic area. It is the house of our creativity, both artistic and sexual. This gives us the drive to take ideas and manifest them and the drive to procreate. (So both the drive to conceive concepts and children. Not a coincidence in language!) It is the seat of our passion and gives us the motivation to create what we desire to have in our lives.

After the sacral chakra, we have the solar plexus. It is the center of our idea of self. It houses our individual identity and personal power. It is the seat of our self-confidence and it is here we establish our boundaries and our own self-worth. It is where our ego resides and where we usually need to go to address our egos when they get out of hand. It is also where I believe we are in our collective evolution.

We know how to physically survive – we got the whole finding food and shelter thing down. We know how to create – look at all the technology, innovations and people in this world! We have established ourselves as individuals as we all go to work on our careers and work on our own individuality and authenticity. But I don’t believe we have completely balanced ourselves as a whole in this area – which is why I believe we are resisting the next level. We have far to many that seek to take up more space than is their own and to strengthen the divides instead of seeking upward movement for all.

The next jump up into the heart chakra is a doozy. It requires a very healthy and secure sense of self, but one that allows for the greatness of others. Living in a society that has more of a competitive, dog eat dog mentality, makes it a bit hard to not feel threatened by another’s success. And that’s what we need to get beyond if we want to level up. If we want to get to the next stage of our evolution.

The heart chakra is the gateway to our subtle being. It is the chakra that connects our physical existence to our spiritual one. We’ve become collectively distrustful of spirit. It has been connected to religion which has been bastardized and corrupted like so many institutions so we discredit it. Of course it would be hard to collectively make the leap to a more spiritual existence. We’ve divided Spirit (aka life force, the divine, God, Buddah, Allah, the Schwartz – whatever you want to call it!) into teams and actually fight and die over this great source of everything that is and ever will be. We acknowledge we are of this one energy, so in that we are the same, yet we kill over our individual interpretation it.

I think enough people are now sensitive to our greater oneness which is what is allowing that next level shift to start pulling at our cores. But it feels we have a long road ahead to make the leap. We’ve been taught to equate sensitivity as weakness and have also created hypersensitivity in response. We’ve become defensive and closed to those who challenge us, instead of opening to the growth waiting behind our defenses. We don’t understand what real unconditional love even looks like collectively.

I’m not sure how we create a path to the next level together. Especially in a place where we can’t seem to allow everyone equal footing on the level we are currently find ourselves. Where systematically we seek to oppress instead of embrace in the names of our gods. I know we each have the power to make the leap and I suppose that is where all change needs to start, isn’t it? In the hearts of each of us?

I am hopeful we can all make the shift to a place of unconditional love but I am not naive enough to think it will be easy or painless. Getting over the ego and learning the lessons compassion brings rarely is easy or painless. And I think we are seeing the effects of these lessons everyday in the news. Maybe the root cause of all this chaos is our unwillingness to accept our parts in its creation and to do the work around correcting it. We need to check our egos to make sure they leave space for everyone at the table. Then recenter ourselves in the heart and do what we can to maintain the integrity of that space for all. We make the next level together. And I know I have work to do.

Do you feel the shifting energy? Do you feel an unnameable restlessness that speaks of a better way of life for us all? If you do, what do you believe is at its root? And how are you working towards listening to its call?